Woman harassed at police check-post

Woman harassed at police check-post
Woman harassed at police check-post

A six-minute video has gone viral on social media, showing a young woman being harassed at a police check-post in Rampura at 2:00am Monday.

The incident was recorded and uploaded by a member of police apparently to defame the woman. The uploader’s Facebook profile name is Rakib Raj with a profile picture wearing Dhaka metropolitan police uniform. The name ‘Mizanur’ is inscribed on his badge. He has introduced himself as a junior officer of the Bangladesh police in his profile.

Rakib Raj aka Mizanur, in his Facebook post, wrote, “ the woman misbehaved with the police when she was being searched at police check-post at 2:00am night. Please share this video.”

A large number of Facebook users started flooding the post condemning the role of police at the time. 

Nazmul Islam of counter-terrorism and transnational crime of police intervened into the matter by posting a status on Facebook. He wrote, "We came to know about a video of a conversation between the police and a woman in the night. Bangladesh Police, dedicated for serving the people, are concerned about the matter. We are requesting all not to spread hatred online. Action will be taken against those responsible after investigations. Have trust in us.”

The video shows a team of police stopping a CNG auto rickshaw and harassing the female passenger. The woman told the police not to misbehave and check her handbag instead. Yet the police were shining their flashlights on her face and making derogatory comments.

A police officer called the woman ‘insolent’ while another police member said she should recorded on video.

Asked which patrolling team was on duty at time, the DMP deputy commissioner (Media and Public Relation) of police Masudur Rahman told Prothom Alo that the culprits have been identified and stern action would be taken.

The police check-post was under Rampura police station and the patrolling team were the members of Public Order Management department of Mirpur police. The police member who uploaded the video has been summoned along with his cohorts to the police station, according to cyber crime unit.

It is learned from the cyber unit on Tuesday night that the three police members were suspended.

There have been several allegations of police misconduct with women.

A woman software engineer was harassed by a traffic police in Dhanmondi. Non-government organisation Action Aid published a research report titled 'Safe city fearless women' three years ago that showed 95 per cent of the women surveyed believe that they face harassment while seeking police assistance.